9.23.2008

The Swell Season - Concert Review #2

For those of you loyal readers, you may remember a concert review for The Swell Season I posted back in May. We made good on our plans to try to see them a second time and went to Boston this past weekend for a show at Boston University's Agganis Arena. I'm breaking up the posts on our trip to share about the concert and sightseeing separately. Herein lies a review of the show (our reason for going to Boston!).

Our intent in going to a second show was to make up for the over-crowded, standing room only, too hot, nasty bar, couldn't-see-the-band show we went to in Richmond. I wanted to go to a venue with seats where you could see over! the head! of the person! in front of you! We looked at the tour schedule and it was a toss up between Boston and Chicago. We chose Boston because it was a shorter drive and the show was on a Friday making it easier to take time off from work.

We arrived in Boston on Thursday night and slept in as best we could on Friday morning so as not to be too tired for the show that night. We spent the day touring MIT and Harvard on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. We went to the show well-rested, not overtired, and ready to actually ENJOY the music.

We have great parking right under the arena, find our seats with no problem, the people around us seem to be fine, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of our seats was on the END OF A ROW! Woohoo! I love having an end seat! So we're waiting and waiting and waiting and there are 2 opening acts - both good, second better than the first. Then we're waiting and waiting for The Swell Season to come on when security seats 2 girls behind us. I quickly realized that one of the girls was DRUUUUUUUUUUUUUNK with a capital D. This came to my attention when I overheard her friend pointing out that "remember, the police already took your beer when we tried to come in..." and my heart just sank. I thought - of all these seats, of all the shows, of all the people - WHY do these girls have to sit behind US? We just drove 14 hours to get to this show, and all was well until YOU sat down. I take a deep breath and just HOPE she chills out.

I can hear her back there asking the ladies beside her if they are drinking. She explains to them if they are, then could they please go buy her a beer - they obviously said NO. I hear her back there chomping on popcorn obnoxiously, she drops her lipstick, spills something, etc. But...for the moment they are quiet. Then the band comes out and they let out ridiculous, redneck-style, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs and start giggling. Seth turns around and very politely asks them if they could please keep it down. Cheers and claps are fine, but they were going overboard and Seth was trying to ask for quiet up front before we got too far into the show. So he asks, turns back around, 2 seconds later, they tap on his shoulder...he turns around, they go "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" right in his face. I IMMEDIATELY jump out of my seat, haul ass up the stairs, and go directly to the first security guard and tell him what just happened. He tells me he'll get "his team" on it. They all know exactly who I'm referring to. HA.

Meanwhile, the drunk girl's friend appears at the top of the stairs and puts on her most innocent face and voice. She's talking to me like "what's wrong? why are you upset?" and says "Where's your sense of fun?" I provide her with some choice words and basically just let her have it. I tell her I didn't pay to come to this show to have obnoxious drunk girls sit behind me and ruin it - not to mention the ladies beside them who I witnessed the drunk girl leaning ALL OVER trying to ask to buy her beer. This crowd is mostly laid back, older couples (a lot are older than we are) who are there to enjoy music sitting in a chair and chilling. Not the tailgating drunk crowd she seemed to be looking for. This wasn't a football game. So she continues her Miss Innocent routine and at this point, Seth has come up trying to figure out why I ran off. We tell this girl she should just stop talking - that she's about to get kicked out. The Security team shows up, they go down, pull these girls from their seats with their belongings and I hear them telling them "We've already talked with you once tonight" and they kick them out! YESSSSSSSSS! I've never felt so vindicated :)

We head back to our seats and the ladies who were so unfortunate as to have them sitting beside them, said "Thank you!" I was shaking with anger and I shed a few tears. I was just PISSED that I had come all this way to see this band a second time and these stupid girls almost ruined the show. I wasn't about to let them get away with it and had them booted before the first song was even over. We got back to our seats during "Falling Slowly" which I was surprised they played as their second song. I calmed down after a while and enjoyed the show - from a nice chair and with no one standing in front of me!

They played new songs, Glen invited a "real life busker" on stage who was also great, and it was an all-around great performance. I got a cool poster before we left. We got back to our hotel around midnight. I've got an itch to watch "Once" again - love, love, love that movie and Glen and Marketa.

1 comment:

Wow! You are the person I want to be when people annoy me. I am usually non confrontational and then think of ten thousand things I could of said!! I hope all is well your way. I REALLY enjoy reading about your life since it does somewhat remind me of mine. You have inspired me to talk to someone about what I want out of life..it is so hard to go through all your thoughts,emotions, and dreams and realize what your passion is. Thanks for making me feel not so crazy about having to love my job! Who knows..maybe we are all suckers and it is the hunt we love, not the job once we actually get it. Hang in there and keep up the good work of ridding public places of drunkity drunk drunks.